| "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" | |
| Music by | Jay Livingston |
|---|---|
| Lyrics by | Ray Evans |
| Published | 1956 |
| Original artist | Doris Day |
| Recorded by | many artists; see Cover versions |
"Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)",[1] first published in 1956, is a popular song which was written by the Jay Livingston and Ray Evans songwriting team.[2]
The song was introduced in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956),[3] starring Doris Day and James Stewart in the lead roles.[2]
Day's recording of the song for Columbia Records (catalog number 40704) was a hit in both the United States – where it made it to number two on the Billboard Hot 100[4] – and number one in the UK Singles Chart.[2] From 1968 to 1973, it was the theme song for the situation comedy The Doris Day Show, becoming her signature song. The song progresses through the life of the singer and, as they sing one verse after another, another period of that person's life is revealed from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, having children and finally old age. It reached the Billboard magazine charts in July 1956. The song received the 1956 Academy Award for Best Original Song with the alternative title "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)".[3] It was the third Oscar in this category for Livingston and Evans, who previously won in 1948 and 1950.[2] The title sequence of the Hitchcock film gives the song title as Whatever Will Be. It was a #1 hit in Australia for pop singer Normie Rowe in September 1965.
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There has been some confusion about the identity of the language in the song's title and lyrics. The words are Spanish, but the phrase is ungrammatical in Spanish. (In grammatical Spanish a roughly equivalent idea is expressed in the proverb "Lo que ha de ser, será [o el mundo se hundirá]."[5]) Composer Jay Livingston had seen the 1954 film The Barefoot Contessa, in which an Italian family has the motto "Che sarà sarà" carved in stone at their ancestral castle. He immediately wrote it down as a possible song title, and he and lyricist Ray Evans later respelled it in Spanish "because there are so many Spanish-speaking people in the world." [6][7] Early in their career, Evans and Livingston had worked together as musicians on cruise ships to the Caribbean and South America. No other language was involved in their coining of the phrase.
"Que sera sera" (with this evidently Spanish-based spelling, but no accent marks) appears as the motto on an English family coat of arms described in William Bartlett's 1865 history of the parish of Wimbledon.[8] But no variant of "Que será será" appears in any of the books in Spanish scanned by the Google Books project, with publication dates from 1500 to 2008.
Although "Che sarà sarà" is also ungrammatical in modern standard Italian (where the idea could be rendered "Quel che sarà sarà"), it does appear in an English context over 400 years ago, in Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus (Act 1, Scene 1), whose text contains the line "Che sera, sera / What will be, shall be"). The Italian version of the saying (spelled "Che sara sara") also has served as the heraldic motto of the Dukes of Bedford (England) since at least as early as 1749.[9] It is not known whether Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter and director of The Barefoot Contessa, was aware of this use of the slogan.
The song is regularly sung at English football matches when a team is progressing to the next round of a competition that will ultimately lead them to Wembley Stadium.[10] The chorus' second line is changed to: Que Sera Sera, whatever will be, will be, we're going to Wembley, Que Sera Sera.
It was also adopted by the Republic of Ireland football team when they qualified for the World Cup in 1990, a.k.a. Italia '90. It was changed to: "Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. We're going to Italy, Que sera, sera".
In 1956, "Que Sera Sera" was the name given to a US Navy C-47 Skytrain[11][12] which, on October 31, 1956, was the first aircraft to land on the South Pole (Operation Deep Freeze II).
In 2011, the anime Inazuma Eleven go uses the phrase in its second opening.
| "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Normie Rowe and the Playboys | ||||
| B-side | "Shakin' All Over" | |||
| Released | 1965 (Australia) | |||
| Format | 45 rpm 7" | |||
| Recorded | Sunshine Records: 1965 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Label | Sunshine Records Sunshine QK 1103 (Australia) | |||
| Writer(s) | Ray Evans and Jay Livingston | |||
| Producer | Pat Aulton | |||
| Normie Rowe and the Playboys singles chronology | ||||
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Australian pop singer Normie Rowe's 1965 recording of "Que Sera Sera'", which was produced by Pat Aulton on the Sunshine Record label (Sunshine QK 1103), was the biggest hit of his career, "the biggest Australian rock 'n roll hit of 1965",[13] and is reputed to be the biggest-selling Australian single of the 1960s.[14] The song was "done in the style of "Louie, Louie" and the manner of "Hang On Sloopy",[13] and given a "Merseybeat" treatment (in the manner of The Beatles' "Twist & Shout"), and was backed by Rowe's band The Playboys. It was paired with a powerful version of the Johnny Kidd & The Pirates' classic "Shakin' All Over", and the single became a double-sided No. 1 hit in most capitals (#1 Sydney, #1 Melbourne, #1 Brisbane, #1 Adelaide, and Perth).[15][16] in September 1965, charting for 28 weeks and selling in unprecedented numbers, with Rock historian Ian McFarlane reporting sales of 80,000 copies,[14][17] while 1970s encyclopedist Noel McGrath claimed sales of 100,000.[18] Rowe scored another first in October 1965 when "Que Sera Sera" became his third hit single in the Melbourne Top 40 simultaneously. In 1965 Rowe received a gold record for "Que Sera Sera" at Sydney's prestigious Chevron Hotel.[19] In December 1965 the master of Rowe's version was purchased by Jay-Gee Records for release in the USA.[20] In April 1966 Rowe received a second gold record for the sales of "Que Sera Sera".[21] In August 1966 Rowe won Radio 5KA's annual best male vocal award for "Que Sera Sera".[22] In 2006 Rowe released a newly recorded version, which was released by ABC via iTunes, and later adding "the whole digital mix with a radio mix and a dance mix".[23]
Other versions of "Que Sera, Sera" include:[24]
A yiddish version (Barclay 86034) was recorded in 1958 by comedian Dave Cash with Didier Boland and his orchestra.[36][37]
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